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As summer winds down, folks are taking their last vacations before school is back in session (if it isn’t already) and fall arrives.
When it comes to the logistics of pulling off a vacation, most of the attention is spent on preparing for the trip, and it certainly helps to nail your departure plans. (Here’s a checklist to consult of 39 things to do before you leave.)
In contrast, very little attention is paid to the logistics of coming back from a vacation. But I’ve noticed over the years that the return poses its own logistical and psychological challenges. You’ve got luggage to unpack, no food in the house, and an inbox of a bajillion work emails waiting for you. On top of that, you’re probably pooped from the travel back home.
With a little bit of foresight, you can make your re-entry from vacation back into the real world go more smoothly. Here’s your game plan.
Take Care of Stuff Before You Leave
Post-return peace still begins with prior-to-departure action.
If I’ve learned anything from my decades of taking trips, it’s that the worst part of coming home is the stuff you didn’t deal with before you left.
So the day before you leave, knock out the chores that future-you would hate to come home to.
I take out all the trash, including the little cans in the bathrooms, and run the garbage disposal. There’s nothing worse than walking into a house that’s been sealed up for a week and getting hit with the smell of sauerkraut that’s been sitting in the kitchen sink. Run the dishwasher and empty it, so you come home to clean dishes and an empty dishwasher.
If your budget allows for it, plan to have a housekeeper clean your house while you’re away. There’s nothing better than coming home to a completely clean house and climbing into a bed with fresh sheets.
Have a plan for dinner. Buy some frozen pizzas that you can pop into the oven. It beats having to stop somewhere for food after leaving the airport instead of being able to go right home.
Come Back From Your Vacation on Saturday
The most popular days to return from vacation are Saturday and Sunday, and there is debate over which is better: the Saturday crowd likes having a buffer day before returning to work on Monday; the Sunday advocates say you might as well get another non-PTO-requiring vacation day, and you can just bite the bullet and go back to work the day after you get home.
I’m with the Saturday crowd, as it offers two distinct advantages.
The first is that Saturday is a less popular day for traveling, so the airport will be a little less congested and plane tickets are often a little cheaper, too.
The second is that when you come home on Saturday, having a buffer day to rest and get your life back in order before returning to work on Monday (more on this in a second) really does pay off.
Yes, you could have had Saturday as an additional day at your vacation destination, but having a buffer day offers more ROI. Research has shown that when it comes to people’s perception of an experience, its duration hardly registers, while how it ends matters a lot. Returning from a trip on Sunday and immediately pivoting, tired and out of sorts, into a cold open at work the next day is more likely to sour the memory of your trip. Giving yourself a soft, relaxed landing on Saturday is more likely to preserve a positive overall feeling about your trip — and about traveling in general.
Use Your Buffer Day to Get Your House in Order
Even if your travel plans don’t allow you to come home on Saturday, consider creating a buffer day another way: Take the day after you return off from work, even if it requires using another day of PTO.
Traveling can be exhausting, so you and your family probably need some extra rest and some time to get your regular life running again. A buffer day allows for that.
Use it to catch up on sleep, unpack, do the built-up laundry, hit the grocery store, take care of chores, and plan out the rest of the week. Basically, do the kind of things you’d do on a Reset Day. It’s not a fun day. It’s a boring, get-your-house-in-order day that allows you to re-find traction and hit the ground running when you wake up the next morning.
Tackle Your Inbox Strategically
One of the biggest challenges of coming back from vacation is managing the pile-up of email that’s come your way while you were gone. The temptation is to start from the oldest emails and slog your way through every last one of them until you’re done. Instead, give yourself 25 minutes to get through as many emails as you can. The hard stop makes the backlog more manageable.
To make the process efficient, first skim through your email subject lines and immediately delete the ones that don’t need your attention; a good number can probably go right into the trash. Then prioritize the most important emails and knock those out first. The rest you can get to later.
Make the Good Vacation Vibes Last
We go on vacations to relax and rejuvenate. But if you’re like me, you’ve probably experienced a little post-vacation blues.
To counter the post-vacation letdown and keep the good vibes going, do some things to keep the memory of your trip alive. Scroll through the photos you took while on vacation. Talk about your trip with your family around the dinner table. Put that souvenir you bought while in the Rocky Mountains on your desk.
Also, before the post-vacation glow wears off, get another fun thing on the calendar. It could be another trip, even a small one, but it doesn’t have to be. It could just be a campout with your kids or a get-together with friends. Research suggests that a big part of the happiness we get from trips and events comes from simply looking forward to them. Partake in the art of anticipation, and ensure that as one good time comes to an end, there’s another on the horizon.
This article was originally published on The Art of Manliness.